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Karen Long Beer Café Manager
CHRISTMAS AT THE BEER CAFÉ
We caught up with Karen Long, Beer Café Manager on all things Christmas as we lead up to the teams busiest time of the year… Karen, tell us a bit about the Beer Café team… There are 13 of us altogether. We have Doina as my Assistant/Kitchen Manager who brings our large buffets, lunch, and breakfast menus to life every day. Doina designs the menu in line with our green policy ensuring minimum food waste. We then have myself, Jane, Jules, Sarah, and Andrea who work as Front of House. Cathy, Paul, Steve and Chris as Tour Guides and Front of House, and then John, Robin and Kim who run the tours. Front of house isn’t just pouring beers, it’s running the shop, welcoming tours, and waiting on the tables. We also have our Supported Learner Mark and his mentor Steve who are with us on a Tuesday and Wednesday until June next year. The team are fantastic, and all pull together to cover where needed! Christmas is coming up; it must be such a busy time for the team how do you prepare for this? You could say that! We have lots of full tours and evening functions during the lead up to Christmas. We expect Saturdays to be particularly busy in December with panto now on at the Theatre Royal – we get lots of families coming for lunch before
they go to the matinee. We also prepare countless hampers at this time of year, and we support our team members with sending these out as Christmas gifts. What gifts and food options will you be promoting in the lead up to Christmas? We will have lots of gift options for Christmas in the shop! We have boxes with bottles and glasses, boxes with chutney made with our own beers and a variety of other gifts to include t-shirts, glasses and playing cards. We even have a gift for dogs! What can team members do to support the Beer Café during this period? It’s always lovely to see our team members join us for lunch and shopping in our shop – don’t forget it’s 10% off lunch and 33% off takeaway beers! If anyone needs to contact me for any reason, please avoid lunchtime as I’m normally carrying a tray of food! What tends to be our bestsellers at this time of year? Rocking Rudolph, Abbot Reserve and Strong Suffolk tend to fly out the door! Our gift boxes are very popular too.
